Ra & the Sun
The sun as the supreme god of the solar tradition, dying into the underworld each night and reborn each dawn.
Egyptians regarded the sun, the god Ra (or Re), as a great creator and the engine of the world's renewal — supreme above all within the solar tradition centered on Heliopolis, though Egyptian theology was polycentric and other cities exalted other creators. Each day he crossed the sky in his barque; each night he travelled through the underworld, battling chaos, to be reborn at dawn. From the Old Kingdom on, Ra was fused with other gods — most famously Amun-Ra of Thebes — making the sun a hub of Egyptian theology for millennia.
Key passages(4)
The Pyramid Texts · 2350 BCE
[Utterance 263] 337a. To say: The two reed-floats of heaven are placed for Rē‘, that he may ferry over therewith to the horizon. 337b. The two reed-floats of heaven are placed for Harachte that Harach
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It happened that the majesty of Re, the god who created himself, ..., after he had exercised kingship, and mankind and gods were (still) united. Mankind then conspired against him, while His Majesty (
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Adoration of Amun, when he rises as Harakhti, by the overseer of the works of Amun, Suti, and the overseer of the works of Amun, Hor. They say: `Hail to you, Re, beauty of every day, who rises in the
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Words said by Amun-Re, lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands: 'May you come to me and rejoice at seeing my beauty, my son, my avenger, Menkheperre (may he live forever!). I shine for your sake, my hear
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